Help us to raise £1.3m to repair St Peter and All Souls Roman Catholic Church and help prevent it from closure. Our church has been at the heart of Peterborough's diverse community for over 125 years, and we need your help!
Local MP Paul Bristow is fully behind the campaign. On a recent visit he said: 'He said; The church is at the heart of the Catholic community in our City. As well as English - we have Eastern European, Indian, African, Irish, Filipino, and East Timorese Catholic communities in Peterborough. But the 125 year old church walls are falling down. They have been temporarily bolstered but need expensive and extensive work. To lose the church would be unthinkable. We can do this! And I promise to stand with the Church and the Catholic community as we try to raise these funds.'
These are the personal stories of the many parishioners, for whom, St. Peter and All Souls Church building and community means so much: 'It has been at the heart of raising our young families - irrespective of our backgrounds - race, age, gender to name a few. The community we see here is rich in experience, culture, wisdom, talent, faith and love. It is important for us to maintain this building and the sanctity of our Catholic beliefs. This church is considered as the mother of the Catholic churches in Peterborough. We need to continue to lead on and grow our faith for our fellow human beings, and our children and generations to come.'
'The church means family to me, a place where I meet others not blood related but related through Christ. It is a safe haven for me and that is why I am vested in this cause.'
'Our Parish is where we renew our spirit, our whole family belong to the church, we are united together with all the different communities and have formed a partnership in pray and worship. During Covid our communities have been tested and those who could not attend mass were able to view online via you-tube. Our church is reactive to situations and is a pillar to the community of Peterborough.'
The church community is made up of Portuguese, English, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, Filipino, Indian, African, Spanish, East Timorese, Eastern European people's and is known for providing a warm welcome to people of all nationalities.
Restoration of the Catholic Church following the Reformation did not happen until the 1850s. Before that, members of the Catholic Church in England were not permitted to build new churches nor to practice their faith openly. Following the restoration, building programmes began. The building of St Peter and All Souls was completed around 1896. The builders were from two local Catholic families and, bearing in mind the small number of parishioners at the time, the work was concluded on a tight budget. The foundations for the church have, over several years, become unstable, due in part to the fact that the site was formerly a fishpond belonging to the Cathedral properties. We now have a situation where the walls of the church are beginning to lean outwards, and the church is cracking under the strain of the movement. It is currently being supported by scaffold buttresses on either side of the building and movement is monitored by sensors placed at various points on the outside. Our church is open seven days a week and since July 2020 (when we reopened after lockdown) daily services have resumed. The parish offers daily services and weekend classes for children as well as social functions for a youth group and monthly lunches for those who may live alone. We have a hall which is let to groups and used by the congregation. Many people drop into the church as they pass the gate on Park Road or Geneva Street, for a moment of quiet prayer before facing the business of their day. For the sake of all who use our church, we now must look to make the building safer by making some very costly repairs. The estimated outlay for the work is in the region of £1.3million, please help us.
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